Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIPE, n. [Sax. pipe; W. pib; Ir. pib; piob; Sw. pip, pipa; D. pyp; G. pfeife, whence Eng. fife; Dan. pibe; Port. It and Sp. pipa; Fr. pipe; Arm. pip or pimp.]

1. A wind instrument of music, consisting of a long tube of wood or metal; as, a rural pipe. The word, I believe, is not now the proper technical name of any particular instrument, but is applicable to any tubular wind instrument, and it occurs in bagpipe.
2. A long tube or hollow body; applied to the veins and arteries of the body, and to many hollow bodies, particularly such as are used for conductors of water or other fluids.
3. A tube of clay with a bowl at one end; used in smoking tobacco.
4. The organs of voice and respiration; as in windpipe. – Peacham.
5. The key or sound of the voice. – Shak.
6. In England, a roll in the exchequer, or the exchequer itself. Hence, pipe-office is an office in which the clerk of the pipe makes out leases of crown lands, accounts of sherifs, &c.
7. A cask containing two hogsheads or 120 gallons, used for wine; or the quantity which it contains.
8. In mining, a pipe is where the ore runs forward endwise in a hole, and does not sink downward or in a vein. – Encyc.